However the first passenger-carrying and goods service was a small line of about 3.2 kilometres (2 mi) built by the Natal Railway Company, linking the town of Durban with Harbour Point, opened on 26 June 1860.

When little gold was found in Mashonaland in Southern Rhodesia, he accepted that the scheme to reach Lake Tanganyika had no economic justification.

Railways built by private companies without government subsidies need enough traffic to pay high freight rates and recover construction costs.

The agricultural products that fuelled much of Rhodesia's early economic growth could not provide this traffic; large quantities of minerals could.

Most early railways in Africa were built by the British government rather than by Companies—the need to raise capital and produce dividends prevented most Companies from undertaking such infrastructure investments.

However, in the early period of railway construction, BSAC obtained finance from South African companies, including Consolidated Gold Fields and De Beers, in which Rhodes was a dominant force.

[1] Though railway lines were also being extended outside of South Africa, as far north as Northern Rhodesia (present-day Zambia),[8] the vision of Cecil John Rhodes, to have a rail system that would run from the "Cape to Cairo", would never materialise.

Upon the merger of four provinces to establish the modern state of South Africa in 1910, the railway lines across the country were also merged.

South African Railways and Harbours (SAR & H) was the government agency responsible for, amongst other things, the country's rail system.

Electrification of the railways began in the 1920s with the building of the Colenso Power Station for the Glencoe to Pietermaritzburg route, and the introduction of the South African Class 1E.

With the increasing coverage the nation's highway system provides, long-distance passenger travel has declined in South Africa.

Shosholoza Meyl used to operate long-distance routes covering the major metros in the country: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London.